Yesterday, with a flick of the wrist that would make Wayne Gretzky look positively arthritic, I dumped an entire cup of coffee into my laptop whereupon it spread with alacrity to all four corners of my keyboard as if on one of those bus tours across Europe where you have to positively hit every single city in three days or less.

It was not one of my best moments and caused great consternation throughout the land.

Fortunately for me, I happened to be in a meeting with a code monkey who immediately unplugged my computer, removed the battery and turned it upside down so it could begin draining out all the while I sat frozen looking at the upturned coffee mug willing it to reverse motion and suck all the liquid back in and sit back up like in the movies.

Anyway, I don't have time right now to tell you much about the aftermath of that except that as I type to you, hints of french roast waft up to me and I am still discovering areas of the computer that no longer work-- speakers, for instance. Bugger.

In three minutes, Forrest* will be here to help me for the afternoon as I have a load of work that I cannot get on top of and he is Mr. Organized. If nothing else, he will stand in my studio and his very presence will motivate me to move through some projects.

But, I did want to share this sweet bird's nest I found on my walk this morning. You might think this is a common occurrence, but it is not at all. We had some strong winds blow through here last night and this small abode was smack dab in the middle of my path as we were headed back up to the house. I don't know what prompted me to look down at that very instant, but I did-- and there it was.

Now, you might think I was doubly moved by the discovery since I was singing this song at full throttle when I came upon it, but that's ridiculous-- nobody would actually ever be walking through the woods singing that song. Please. How queer would that be?

So I brought it home and wanted to photograph it for you but thought you'd want to see its size (is it a hummingbird nest? or for a little wren?) so I looked around my studio for what would work best-- a paperclip? box of dental floss? button? I settled on a highlighter--

because nothing like an obscured highlighter to help you grasp the size. And the saddest bit of all?

(This next part almost hurts me to share with you). It took me a full TEN MINUTES to think of using a ruler.

We had friends here last night for dinner that led into sitting in the living room playing guitars and singing until the wee hours (seriously<-- I think it was like 10:30 before we started wrapping up. I could hardly find my way to bed), am getting together with my sister and brother-in-law tonight and then we have T's whole soccer team here tomorrow for a Sunday brunch righteous riot so it's gonna be a bit before I am back.

Glory be we have a four day weekend heading straight into my arms next week-- come to mama!

Bisous, E

*If you haven't met Forrest, he is a high school student who helps me out with the brombies when I have to be away and has been a wonderful volunteer at SAW events. It's too bad he has his sights on attending college because I simply can't allow that to happen and lose the best dog sitter, office helper ever. Sorry, Forrest, you'll just have to rent Animal House and imagine the rest.

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